More and more information is being made available to computer system users via various mediums such as CD-ROMs, on-line databases and the like (collectively referred to as databases). A query to a database typically requires a complex textual specification based on keywords and logical relationships between sets of information. In most instances, the query returns only the results. Often, the results are not useful either because the results are much larger than that which can be easily visualized and manipulated, or because the result is unexpectedly empty.
When performing a search, it is typical that a search strategy will be used in order to find the desired information. Most search strategies are premised on attaining a reasonable number of items that satisfy a search criteria. Typically, a query is comprised of keywords (i.e. search terms) connected together via Logical and/or Proximity Operators. Logical Operators are used to include or exclude items in a set whereas proximity operators are used to identify items having keywords that are a predetermined distance apart (such as within 10 word or that are adjacent). Once a query is made and executed, a list of items satisfying the criteria of the query is presented to the user. The user can then either view one or more items in the list, or if the list is large, modify the search to reduce the number of items in the list.
One prior art system, the LEXIS Information retrieval system, allows queries to be performed according to various levels. Each subsequent level contains a subset of the results of the immediately prior level, based on user provided search criteria. The LEXIS system provides text based feedback which indicates the number of items found which satisfy the search criteria. The user then has various options to view the list of items found (e.g. full text, keyword in context, segments or as a list of citations.)
A second prior art system is the DIALOG information retrieval system. In DIALOG, query results can be structured so that feedback is provided as to the number of items found which satisfy each keyword. Queries may also be combined to create new queries. However, the user must track the queries made in order to make effective use of these facilities.
When performing searches, it may also be desirable to be able to restart searches at a point in the middle of a search path. In the aforementioned LEXIS System, this is accomplished by specifying and modifying a prior search level. This has the drawback in that it entirely replaces the prior search level and all search level below the level modified. In the Dialog system this can be done, but is left to the user to map out the query history according to the taken search sequence. No mechanism is provided to the user to accommodate this. Thus, it would be desirable to have a system that is capable of creating a search history through which a user may restart searches at designated points without destroying the results of any prior searching.
Further materials relevant to present invention include:
EP 0 535 986 A2, entitled "Method of Operating A Processor", Robertson, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention describes a method for centering a selected node of a node link structure along a centering line. The nodes are in rows, and each row extends across a centering line with links between nodes in adjacent rows. When a user requests a centering operation for an indicated node, a sequence of images is presented, each including a row that appears to be a continuation of the row with the indicated node and that includes a continued indicated node that appears to be a continuation of the indicated node. The rows appear to be shifted, bringing the continued indicated nodes toward the centering line, until a final shift locks the continued indicated node into position at the centering line. The positions of the indicated node and a subset of the continued indicated nodes together can define an asymptotic path that begins at the position of the indicated node and approaches the center line asymptotically until the final shift occurs. The displacements between positions can follow a logarithmic function, with each displacement being a proportion of the distance from the preceding position to the centering line. Each node can be rectangular, and the nodes in each row can be separated by equal offsets to provide compact rows. Each node can be a selectable unit, so that the user can request a centering operation by selecting a node, such as with a mouse click.
EP 0447 095A, Robertson, et al., entitled "Workspace Display", which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention discloses a processor which presents a sequence of images of a workspace that is stretched to enable the user to view a part of a workspace in greater detail. The workspace includes a middle section and two peripheral sections that meet the middle section on opposite edges. Each of the sections appears to be a rectangular two-dimensional surface and they are perceptible in three dimensions. When the user is viewing the middle section as if it were parallel to the display screen surface, each peripheral section appears to extend away from the user at an angle from the edge of the middle section so that the peripheral sections occupy relatively little of the screen. When the user requests stretching, the middle section is stretched and the peripheral sections are compressed to accommodate the stretching. When the user requests destretching, the middle section is destretched and the peripheral sections are decompressed accordingly.
Furnas, G. W., "Generalized Fisheye Views," CHI '86 Proceedings, ACM, April 1986, pp. 16-23, describes fisheye views that provide a balance of local detail and global context. Section 1 discusses fisheye lenses that show places nearby in great detail while showing the whole world, showing remote regions in successively less detail; a caricature is the poster of the "New Yorker's View of the United States." Section 3 describes a degree of interest/DOI) function that assigns to each point in a structure, a number telling how interested the user is in seeing that point, given the current task. A display can then be made by showing the most interesting points, as indicated by the DOI function. The fisheye view can achieve, for example, a logarithmically compressed display of a tree, as illustrated by FIG. 4 of Furnas for a tree structured text file. Section 4 also describes fisheye views for botanical taxonomies, legal codes, text outlines, a decisions tree, a telephone area code directory, a corporate directory, and UNIX file hierarchy listings. Section 5 indicates that a display-relevant notion of a priori importance can be defined for lists, trees, acylic directed graphs, general graphs, and Euclidean spaces, unlike the geographical example which inspired the metaphor of the "New Yorker's View," the underlying structures need not be spatial, nor need the output be graphic. FIG. 6 of Furnas shows a fisheye calendar.
Spoerri, Anselm, "InfoCrystal: A visual tool for information retrieval", MIT-CETI-TR 93-3, describes with reference to a FIG. 1, how to transform a Venn diagram into an iconic display which represents all possible Boolean queries involving its inputs in a normal form. The Venn diagram is first exploded into its disjoint subsets. The subsets are then represented by icons whose shapes reflect the number of criteria satisfied by their contents (also called the rank of a subset.) Finally, the subset icons are surround by a border area that contains criterion icons that represent the original sets. Visual coding principles that are incorporated include (1) shape coding to indicate the number of criteria that the contents associated with an interior icon satisfy, (2) proximity coding to indicate that the closer an interior icon is located to a criterion icon, the more likely it is that the icon's contents are related to it, (3) rank coding to indicate how many criteria are satisfied, (4) color or texture coding to indicate which particular criteria are satisfied by the icon's contents, (5) orientation coding so that the sides of an icon are positioned so that their sides face the criteria they satisfy, and (6) size or brightness & saturation coding to indicate the number of elements represented by an icon. Section 2.2 describes a Visual Query Language wherein the output of an InfoCrystal is defined as a set of selected interior icons. FIG. 3 illustrates how the InfoCrystals can be "chained together" to form a hierarchical query structure.